inferno

Redneck Romeo by Lorelei James

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Redneck Romeo (Rough Riders, #15)
Grade-A
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-None
Series-Rough Riders #15
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
388 pages

Dalton McKay is the last single male in his generation. He also just moved back to his hometown after a three year absence. He had to leave his family to find out who he was, aside from a drinkin’, fightin’, ranchin’, whorin’ Mckay. Now that he knows who he is, he has to get the girl he’s always wanted.

Aurora “Rory” Wetzler has grown up in Sundance. She and Dalton McKay have been friends since childhood, until they weren’t. When they weren’t friends, they were kind of more. Being kind of more and it imploding has left her emotionally scarred. Now, she’s a more mature, confident woman. She is not gonna fall for the McKay charm again.

They are a lot of different plots going on this book. I won’t give any of them away but they are majors plots. I started this book with a lot of doubt. I mean, I wasn’t a huge Dalton fan, he seemed judgemental and kind of a beta male in the previous books. Also, this took place three years in the future from the last full length novel in the series. I don’t know why but that left me a little off kilter before I started reading. I’m so very glad I kept going. I ended up enjoying this book immensely. I also ended up liking Dalton and understanding him better.

Kudos to Lorelei James for keeping a very long series fresh and exciting. I hate that it seems to be winding down. According to her website there should be one more book, but who will it be about?
The only possible McKay of marrying age is Sierra at twenty-one. Hopefully, she will continue writing about the Wests. There are seven of them I think.

Menage Monday – The Merry Widow of Tanner’s Ford by Reece Butler

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Merry Widow of Tanner's Ford
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-Mild/Moderate Kink
Genre-Retro Contemporary
Reviewed by Kate

The year is 1988 and it’s well known that ménage marriages are the norm in the town of Climax, Montana (the old Tanner’s Ford for all of you of the Bride Train series). Marci lost her tyrant of a husband in a house fire that left her with the clothes on her back, a scar on her face, and a fear that the law is after her for murdering her husband. She heads to Climax to live with the only family she has left, her sister Nikki, the town’s doctor. Marci is enjoying her new freedom, although she is leery of strangers seeing her scarred face. She’s also looking forward to exploring her sexual side since her marriage included only dreaded scheduled interludes.

Simon inherited the family ranch and works it along with his twin brother Lance. Lance is down in Texas doing some extra work, so Simon is alone on the ranch when he breaks his leg. When his leg ends up in a cast, Dr. Nikki arranges for Marci to head out to the ranch to take care of stubborn Simon, but doesn’t tell Simon that Marci is her sister. Marci is excited to take care of Simon, and she’s hoping that Simon will “take care” of her too.

Simon and Lance had a fiance a while back who turned out to be a gold digger, so they’ve decided to leave their wife up to fate. Once Simon has Marci on the ranch, he realizes she may just be the one. Now he just has to wait for Lance to come home and hope that Marci is on board with a triad relationship as well.

I admit to falling for Simon a bit myself. Between the twins, he’s the quieter and more studious of the two and there were a few times I found myself just wanting to sigh contentedly. Lance is a force to be reckoned with, as Marci finds out when she finally meets him. He has a forceful and dominant personality that Marci struggles with a bit because of the domineering side of her dead husband. Marci is a rare heroine who actually manages to think with both her head and her heart. So despite the fact that Lance is so dominant, she is able to recognize the differences between Lance and her husband. I  actually enjoyed her character a lot.

Initially I was a little surprised by the 1988 setting of the book. It just isn’t a common period for a romance to take place. I didn’t know what genre to classify the book as. Not really contemporary, but I hesitated to call it historical(because I like most of you, was alive in 1988-and I don’t consider myself ancient yet). So I’m going with retro contemporary (thanks to Kay for that suggestion). I loved running across little things that reminded me of the time frame. Corded phones, valley-girl talk and Highway to Heaven. The references made me smile. At first, I couldn’t figure out what was romantic about 1988, but Reece Butler has shown me in this first book of what promises to be a good series. I anxiously await the next installment.

Tie Me by Olivia Cunning

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Tie Me (One Night with Sole Regret, #5)

Grade-A+
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-Low
Series-One Night With Sole Regret #5
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
159 pages

Kellen Jamison is man trapped in the past. His life looks pretty sweet. He’s gorgeous, wealthy, a rock star, has a great best friend and good band mates. But he is partially broken inside. His guilt over promises he made to a dead woman eat him alive. He tortures himself by revisiting the beach house she loved so much. He wears a cuff on one of his wrists as a remembrance of her. He loves her and doesn’t know how to stop.

Dawn O’Reilly is a classical, composing pianist with a Grammy for her achievements. She is staying in a rented beach house for part of the summer trying to finish a piece of music that has her exasperated. Her muse is gone and she can’t find another. She has to be perfect, her music has to be perfect. After a disappointing evening trying to compose, she goes out onto her deck in the storm and sees a man. In that moment everything changes.

This is probably Olivia Cunning’s best work to date in my opinion. I have been waiting for Kellen’s story and this one was fantastic. The emotion in this story was at times almost overwhelming. It took Dawn’s tenacity and determination to make Kellen see that he was alive even if Sara wasn’t. Kellen had to make peace with the promises he made to Sara (who seemed a bit childish and a whole lot selfish in the description of her) and his acknowledgement that it is possible and okay to always love someone’s memory even while you go on living your life. This book moved me to tears, both happy and sad tears. I highly recommend it.